I’m Scott Wattley with Crawford Media Group and glad to welcome in studio Kid Frank, president of Safe Places for Women. You can check out their website SafePlacesForWomen.org. Kid, good to see you sir. Yeah, thank you Scott, good to be with you again. Interesting time of year. Well, it’s hard to believe we’re wrapping up another year just to end life. I mean it’s crazy with all the things going on. Oh my goodness, well, elections everything. Well, and I’m not going to lie to you. My wife has already set up our Christmas tree, which I know, I know, I know, I’m like, you have to be the first one in our neighborhood or at least maybe the state of Colorado to have their Christmas tree up already. She said, you know what, I’ve got a lot of stuff going on, just going to go ahead and get it up right now. So we’re in the Christmas mood. We’re in the holiday season already. A lot of old jump right into it. Exactly. Well, hey, you and I met several weeks back and I actually got to come to one of your kind of meetings a little bit just to let people know more and we thoroughly enjoyed that. But for those that have not heard about Safe Places for Women, give us kind of an introduction for that. Yeah, exactly. It was great having you on property as well to Scott. And love sharing the vision of what we’re doing to help women. And so, you know, more and more people are hearing about sex trafficking. It’s obviously just a horrific thing that, you know, here lately has been in the news more and more, you know, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitzgerald’s just arrested the other day with sex trafficking charges against him. And Sean Combs did he just arrested here a couple weeks ago, sex trafficking charges. And so it’s in the news and people are talking about it and we’re trying to help women who are victims and survivors of sex trafficking. And so many people, you know, are just amazed and blown away that this kind of stuff is happening today. They’re shocked that, you know, are these Americans, you know, where they come and from. And yeah, we’re we’re we have a chance right here in Colorado to serve women who are just have overcome so much and have been through so much and are wanting to rebuild new lives. And we have the opportunity to work with them, walk alongside them day in and day out and we have a home here in Denver that we have 10 beds in. And they can stay with us as long as they need to stay with us to recover and to rebuild and dream again about the future. And yeah, when you hear the stories of just their journeys, it’s heartbreaking. And so it’s a real gift and an opportunity to walk alongside them. Sure. And you know, you you said, where do they come from? I mean, when we first met, I was like, you know, and you hear about on the news, but this does take some education. Yeah, exactly. From from you to us because we all picture this happens different. And but you think, man, this is the United States of America. Yeah. And it’s rampant. Exactly. Well, and I think I shared this with you before, Scott, that no nation on earth purchases sex the way the United States purchases sex. There is a demand that is just it’s not it’s not great. It’s something that’s not necessarily out and sometimes it’s out in the open. Sometimes it’s not, but there’s a demand. And unfortunately with that demand comes a lot of people who you know, perpetrate and who exploit that situation. And you know, you’ll hear about stuff happening or you’ll you’ll see you’ll drive pass a strip club or you know, you hear about some of the dark web and some of the things going on online. But with all of that, there are victims. There are real live victims who are getting the worst end of what’s taking place here. And that demand has a downside. And it’s that children and women primarily, some men are affected by this as well. But primarily it’s women and children are taken advantage of or exploited or used for the purpose of people’s satisfaction. And there’s there’s a lot of damage that’s done in people’s lives as a result of this. And so yeah, it’s going on in every state. Colorado is certainly not exempt to it. Right now in the within all 50 states, Colorado ranks 25th in the nation with services for survivors. And so we’re right in the middle of the pack as far as what we’re offering to help people. Statistics show we have about 15,000 women that are trafficked through Colorado every single year. And so this is going on. It’s going on here. And my desire is that 25th is not that’s not okay. Like it’s hard services provided. We can’t just be 25th. Right. We have to get to be number one at some point. So my goal is over the next couple of years that from educating law enforcement to working with service providers to the continuum of care, continuing to make sure that we’re providing the places for them to come and heal and begin again. I want to make sure that we’re moving up the ranks as far as nation as far as states within this nation that are providing services. And yeah, they’re all they’re all everyone that we’re serving right now is a citizen. They it’s amazing. People wonder how do they find you? How do they get to Colorado? Like how does all that work? And it’s pretty cool. It’s it’s pretty amazing how it works. And there’s an organization called Rescue America who has a national hotline. And so one way or another, women will come across this hotline in the call. And there’s 24/7 staffing on that hotline. And then it’s pretty amazing. It’s a pretty cool. And that is a Southwest Airlines will partner. Yeah, you’re catching that. They will partner and fly the women anywhere in the country that they need to go to for safety. And so just a shout out to Southwest Airlines for doing that, you know, but so we’ll go to the airport. We’ll pick up a woman. She might be coming from Florida, New York. She might be coming from California. She’ll come here. The the location of our property is not advertised. And so she’ll go off the grid. She’ll go off the grid. And she has a she can feel safe. And for many of the women to feel safe is really maybe the first time in their life that they’ve ever actually felt safe. And they can start to heal and start to realize that there’s people who care about them that want the best for them. And start to go what would you like to be doing with your life if you were able to choose and not maybe feeling forced to do certain things that you’ve never really wanted to do anyways. And so it’s a real gift to be able to give to them. Right. Right. Once again, Ken Frank is with us. He’s the president of Safe Places for Women. Again, check out the website safeplacesforwomen.org. You know, it’s funny. I mentioned the word safe. I actually had that written down as my number one point because during our few interviews and then coming to the meeting there, I heard that word over and over and over. And I got in the car and told my wife, I said, you know what? I don’t think in 66 years live and I’ve ever thought I’m unsaid. Now I’ve been in some precarious thing. Yeah. I mean, hunting or something like that. But never get out of I ever thought about am I safe? Boy, that must, I can’t even imagine what that must feel like. Yeah. You know, there was one time Scott that I was in a major city here in the United States and I took a wrong turn in that city. And it was, it was, it was after dark. It was, it was on a Saturday night. And I was in a part of town of that city. And I immediately had this feeling of I need to get out of this area of town. And I just had this feeling go through me of this is not safe right now for me to be here. And and I, it was a little bit of like this realization of going, what if you were in a situation where that was not just a one time experience and you weren’t in a vehicle and it would only last a 10 minutes, but it was a feeling of a regular kind of thing that you encountered where you never knew the people you were going to be around. You never knew the people that you were going to be in a hotel room with. You never knew the people you were going to be getting into a car with. It’s hard to fathom the danger involved in that and the vulnerability involved in that or you think that somebody cares about you and their level of care is just so sick and dysfunctional. And until you get around people who really do care, you don’t always know that you’re in a situation that is so disgusting and so sick until you’re in a healthy situation. You go, I can’t believe that I I stayed. I can’t believe that I thought that person cared. I can’t believe that you know, I let that go on for years and years. And so anytime a woman picks up that phone and says, I’m, I want to get out of a situation. He’s gone for a couple hours or I ran and I’m at a bus stop right now where I’m at a restaurant right now and I want help. The courage that it takes for her to leave. Sometimes to get on an airplane and they’ve never flown before. Sometimes to get into that Uber to go to the airport, to go to a place they some of them have never been to Colorado. Some of them have never even heard of safe places for women. And so they’re coming to a place because that’s how bad of the situation is. And so again, what a gift that we have to walk alongside them to be able to offer them hope, to be able to say we want to address the things that are keeping you from moving forward. Is that, you know, getting a GED? Is that taking care of maybe some warrants? Is that helping you with the addiction that you’ve developed because of the grotesqueness of what you’ve been a part of that you check out every single day. We want you to know you’re safe and loved and three meals a day and a roof over your head and people who care about you and we’re a Christian organization. We’re a Christian organization. And so again, this is what we think Jesus would want us to be doing is clothing people feeding them and visiting them and taking care of their needs and that’s what we’re doing. Well, you and I both know, I mean, if it wasn’t for that aspect, I mean, we could talk about a lot of things today, but if it wasn’t for that aspect of what God can do, you might have a so-called ministry that it’d be impossible. Yeah, I mean, it really would. Exactly. Well, they’ve been through so much Scott. And so we can do a lot, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing that we’re going to be able to do for them that the Lord is going to be able to give them hope and give them a sense of inner peace and give them a sense that the past is gone and the new is here, the future is here. We can do a lot, but there’s nothing that a spiritual change of heart is going to be able to do for them. Right. Now, you know, a lot of times, husband goes off to work, wife does her thing where that’s work or are being a housewife, but I imagine with this is a huge joint venture with you in your family. I mean, she’s in everything every day and you actually brought me a book. I did. Leading after loss by Michelle Frank. Yeah, I’m super proud of my wife. I mean, I think she’s a rock star. We’ve been married 26 years and and she is just such a partner and also a leader in this in the space of helping women. And yeah, she just she documented our journey over the last 18 years of being involved in human trafficking and and providing housing. And so Scott, I you know, said before this this house that we’ve got here in Denver, it’s our 12th house that we’ve been able to open up in our eighth different state. You know, so we’ve been trying to, you know, provide local places for women to go. And so she’s documented that and it’s on Amazon. I just came out last week and she’s getting some awesome feedback from people and super proud of her. And I I think anytime you put things on paper and you put yourself out there, it’s a little scary, but she’s been getting some awesome feedback. You can find it on Amazon leading after loss by Michelle Frank and it’s a it’s an awesome story. Okay, great. Our time’s kind of short on this segment. Let’s talk about who getting that time you repeat. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Yep. We’re we’re one of the charities for Colorado Gives and it actually starts this week. November and December, two thirds of most nonprofits budgets get made in the final quarter of the year. And so for that time of the year where people are thinking about where do we want to give a year end gift? Where do we want to, you know, support and what charity and this, you know, again, for people to have a heart for women and children, I would really encourage you to check out our website. I’d really encourage you to think about, you know, on Colorado Gives Day and just throughout the next two months, supporting a local charity here that’s making a difference, really investing in women’s lives and and especially for those who have really developed a hard, or been curious about sex trafficking or seeing the movie sound of freedom or heard about this, heard about this, you know, maybe it’s resonated with you and you don’t really know where to turn to or where to where to go to really support how to make a difference. I would love to be that charity that you consider here during this next two months of Colorado Gives. Right. And you know, I was looking to do some things this morning, thinking about donations and see what people leave to animal shelters. Yeah. A year. Yeah. Is mind boggling. Yeah. Hundreds and tens of thousands. Yes. Yes. Folks, this is something to change a human being’s life. Yeah. Yeah. Right here. Yeah. Every, every gift helps. It’s it’s $250 a day per bed. And so it’s $2,500 a day to do what we do to support these women coming out of sex trafficking. So if you could support one day, one day, one bed, $250, maybe you say I’ll support two beds. Sure. $500. Again, every, every gift matters. It’s just under a million dollars to run our program here in Colorado. We’ll be very, very appreciative for every, every donor who wants to partner. Okay. We appreciate your time, sir. Thank you. Thank you for what you’re doing. You’re in your wife and your whole team as well. A kid Frank president, safe places for women.org, check it out, and folks, hey, really pray about this matter and, hey, let’s help them out. Let’s change, let’s help change some lives for safe places for women. Thanks for being with us today. My name is Scott Wattley, I want to thank kid Frank, president of safeplacesforwomen.org.
